My Story, His Story, Our Story
by TheGryfter
Summary: Trapped on another world, where there is no Superman, Lois tells a story. The story of Lois and Clark. To convince the one man who can help her - that their love is worth preserving.
1. Where To Begin?

A/N: First of all, apologies if this flooded your inbox. It was meant to be a one-shot, but came out in short chapters during the writing of it.

Inspired by an episode of Lois and Clark, where Lois is trapped in an alternate dimension. There, Clark never became Superman, and she has to convince him of the man he's supposed to be.

This one's for Doc...

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…**My Story, His Story, Our Story…**

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**How To Begin?**

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People say life is strange.

They say it all the time. Something happens, they shrug, and say: "That's life. It's strange."

People don't know what they're talking about.

Her life had been strange.

Brought up as a cross between a daughter and a rebellious recruit to the Army, she had no reference point for normal.

Eight years ago her already off-beat life had morphed into a kaleidoscope of weirdness that should have reserved her a permanent place on some $600 shrink's couch.

And now this…

Sitting here, in this room that… that smelled the same, looked the same, felt the same, and yet… wasn't.

Sitting here, looking at him.

Identical hair, eyes, the slightest lines around the mouth that spoke of too many smiles. The way he carried himself, self-conscious but strong.

His little gestures.

The way he would tilt his head whenever he was thinking hard.

The way he always looked to do something, anything, with his hands.

The way he gnawed on his bottom lip when he tried not to laugh.

It was him!

But it wasn't.

Yep… her life was strange.

If people only knew.

"I guess, I should start at the beginning…" she said, "I'll tell you everything."

"Everything?"

"To the last detail. How we met. What happened after… Why I need you now. You're probably not going to believe any of it, and that's okay, but… It's the only thing I can think of. I have to find a way back to him, and I can't do it without you. Please…"

"Okay," he said, "Start from the beginning…"

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	2. Meet Cute

**Meet-Cute**

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We met about five miles and twenty different worlds from here.

I was scared that night. Not because of the rain, or because I had no idea where I was, but because I thought I'd lost the one person on this earth who could actually stand to be around me.

My little cousin – they said she was dead. I didn't believe it.

So I came to Smallville – a tiny little hick town in the middle of Who-Cares?

Or so I thought at the time.

The flash of lightning that came was so bright it seemed to rip the heavens open. I veered off the road into a field of – spot the cliché- - corn. My car seized up. I wasn't hurt, but I was dazed.

That's why, the first time I saw him, I thought I was dreaming.

I figured I'd bumped my head on the wheel – because what other reason could there be for the man lying naked in the middle of what looked like a huge, lightning-designed crop circle?

I got out to check if he's okay.

And give me a break. I'm a woman. He was naked and he looked like… well…

I snuck a peek.

Sue me!

He didn't even remember his own name. I had to take him to the hospital, get them to check him out. He kept trying to leave, and didn't seem impressed with my witty repartee.

I was scared for my cousin, frustrated at being caught up in this small town soap opera, and now this guy is here, and he's my responsibility, and why do I keep fixating on how good looking he is?

I think that explains how I treated him after.

I found out who he was – that he was the link I was looking for. And it should have been just that. A straightforward matter of tracking him down, and finding out the truth.

But, for us, it was never that simple.

He found me at Chloe's grave.

He was himself again, and this was my first real glimpse of Clark Kent.

There was compassion in his eyes, and regret.

And then…

Sarcasm overload. We just started railing on each other. I can't even remember what it was about. I think I told him I liked his mom more than I liked him, and he gave as good as he got.

But you know what?

That pattern – that banter – that driving need to find each other's buttons – it was all right there. Right from the start.

Nothing else had ever felt so… true.

He insists our story's going to be told one day. I don't know about that, but it began right there, beside an empty grave, at the start of our first investigation together.

Already it was us.

Already, it was Lois and Clark.

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	3. The Princess

**The Princess**

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I met her in the same spot.

Funny, that.

Fighting for my life against some psycho that, by now, has formed just another face in the long line of super-charged idiots out to kill me – she pops up and floors the guy with a shovel.

She seemed nice.

Kinda freaky that we shared the same initials, but coincedences happen.

I saw the electricity between them.

Although, looking back, it wasn't so much electricity… as it was tension.

He changed whenever she was around.

I tried to be nice to her – as nice as I know how to be – but I think I never took to her because of that.

The guy I'd known 'til then – for a full twenty-four hours – was kinda geeky, kinda smart, but totally in command of who he was.

He carried his personality like a… well, like a cape around his broad shoulders.

Until she showed up.

I could see the veil come down behind his eyes, the stoop develop in his back, and the pain flare in his heart.

They couldn't meet each other's eyes.

For two people supposedly so in love – with so much history – you'd think they could talk without the weight of the unverse crushing them.

It was sad. They both deserved better – and neither knew it.

And here's a secret – something I've never told anyone – that was the reason I stayed.

We found Chloe, and yes… my college acceptance got revoked, but I yearned for that guy who was free of her world.

Around me, he'd actually smile. And grimace. And swear under his breath. And shoot out barbs. And basically… live. Free.

I knew then that I wanted to see more of that guy.

If I hadn't, I would have done what I always did – I would have run away.

Chloe told me later that she saw it too.

At the school fundraiser, when I dunked his ass in the tank. I don't know why I did it – I ran up to him and ruffled his hair. We were goofing around, just laughing for the sake of it.

But Chloe was there, and she saw it. She's his best friend, so she should know.

A new smile was born on his face that day.

A smile she'd never seen before.

A smile for me.

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	4. A Home At Last

**A Home At Last**

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How do I explain the Kents?

How do I explain what they meant to me?

Knowing now what pressure they were under – the secret they were protecting – why would they open their doors to me so freely?

Why would they even bother?

I was nothing much.

A college girl on her way to dropping out – who obviously ticked off their son with every snarky sentence. A lost girl with no sense of family, or personal space or even that little filter that most people have between their brains and their mouths, controlling what they say.

I was a nightmare.

And from day one I was their daughter.

Martha would try to teach me to cook. _Try_ being the operative word.

She was always so patient, explaining over and over again how to mix the ingredients and follow the recipe. Then sweeping up the plates that I broke.

She finds it so funny that I still can't do it. And yet, every Thanksgiving there I am, right next to her in a matching apron, causing more havoc than my place is worth.

And she'll be patient, explaining over and over again how to mix the ingredients and follow the recipe. Then she'll sweep up the plates I inevitably break.

I lost my own mom when I was four. And I carried that ache around with me until I met Martha Kent.

And then it was gone… vanished in kindness.

Jonathan.

All he ever did was love me. Take care of me. Run interference for me.

Trust me.

It was his home – his responsibility – and in a very real way he carried the future of the world in his hands in the form of his son.

The world was never in any danger.

He's still the rock we both cling to.

Even the force of his memory is so fierce that it sustains us. In a world of dirty grey, where we see so much pain, so much blood, so many tears, every single day… all we have to do is ask, "What would Jonathan do?" and we have an answer.

A light in the darkness.

I miss him so much, I still cry…

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	5. Moments Lost

**Moments Lost**

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Last year, Clark and I finally brought down Summerholt Institute. But not before things went… a little awry.

I was captured – of course.

I was hooked up to this huge, frightening machine – of course.

And Clark rescued me – of course.

But not before the process had started. The machine unlocked memories that were buried deep in my subconscious. Until then, I never realised just how many times I'd been knocked out or mind-wiped since I arrived in Smallville.

One night sticks out, though.

There was a gypsy woman, some lipstick, and then… perfect chaos.

I was under a spell, I guess. A love spell. To fall for the first man I laid eyes on. And that man was Clark Kent.

When I told Clark I'd gotten my memories back, he started worrying. He thought, maybe, some of the effects of that night had lingered, and that's why we got together in the end.

My answer to him was simple – I'd been in love with him long before that. I just didn't know it.

That night, my inhibitions were unleashed. I allowed myself to feel for the first time in years.

Our first kiss – it was like being inside an exploding star, and suddenly the whole universe is colour, and light, and magic.

He revealed himself that night.

A leap across the city in the face of the moon.

The sight of him, standing on the edge of the roof, the blinking lights of Metropolis behind him and the wind whipping at his tousled hair… every inch the hero. And then we were off – on a dream of flying.

How far would we have gone that night, if he hadn't found Lana's invitation?

I don't know.

I don't want to know.

The night ended in pain – the start of many such as his first love gave herself to his greatest enemy.

And all we had… was an almost.

A Whitesnake CD, a faded tattoo, and an almost…

But the story wasn't over.

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	6. Partners

**Partners**

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Our partnership at the Planet was pure insanity from the start.

I was convinced I was taking him under my wing. I didn't know he'd already spent four years protecting me.

_Lois Lane's Rules of Reporting?_

He still has it – sentimental fool that he is.

He still tries to convince me that he learned everything he knows by working with me. But I know the truth. He was always the teacher. Quiet, unassuming, to be sure… but my guide through this world.

He'd protest that I haven't learned any truly key lessons – like looking before I leap, or thinking before I speak, but he taught me to be a good person. To value honesty, and justice.

And to fight.

Words are our weapons, and I'm sure one day the names Lane and Kent will be synonymous with the struggle against tyranny and evil.

I'll make it so.

The memories that remain for me – fresh, and sharp as jagged crystal - aren't the stakeouts behind dead-end factories, or getting mugged in alleys for chasing the wrong leads… it's the two of us alone at our desks , long after everyone else has left.

The soft clapping of the keyboard.

The smell of coffee and paper.

And knowing that sitting right there is a man willing to battle the world by my side.

Those nights… made it all worth it.

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	7. The Truth

**The Truth**

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"_Deep down, underneath it all… do you love this man? Do you… love him?"_

"_Yes…"_

I lied to him. I told him I'd slipped the sensor off my finger.

But that's not the way of it.

There in that dank basement, accosted by yet another sociopath – that was the first time I admitted out loud, that I loved Clark Kent.

How romantic is that?

Chained to a chair and socketed into a Naziesque lie detector… I tell him I love him.

Candy and roses it is not.

But when you think about it… it's very Lois and Clark.

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	8. Lana Again

**Lana Again**

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Chloe's wedding ripped the heart from all of us.

Jimmy in blood.

Chloe in wasted tears.

And me… in a dance. That's where I lost my heart.

The minute she walked in, and he broke away from me.

I could have fought for him, I know. I could have stood my ground, shook him, made him see that he'd moved on and become a better man since she left.

I'd been there, by his side, watching as he slowly picked up the pieces. From that day when I'd walked in on him, a broken shell, weeping at her goodbye… to the moment she came back into his life like a hurricane.

He'd changed. Grown up. Accepted fate.

And then it all just… went away.

And so did I.

The months in Star City were the loneliest of my life. I stood watch at Jimmy's bedside, willing him to pull back from the edge.

The nurses in the hospital assumed I was his wife.

Why else would I spend every night, curled in a hard plastic chair, crying myself to sleep?

It was the first time in so long that we were separated.

The days dragged on in their endless progress of shadows, and I felt myself drifting further and further away…

Away from him.

Away from the reporter, the person I was becoming.

Away from the dream of a life that had sparked inside me.

I hid from the world, and the knowledge that he was with her. I refused to accept that my life had come to that. Pining for a man who wasn't mine.

I didn't know she broke him.

I had no idea that she'd split his soul once again.

If I had… I would been by his side in an instant.

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	9. Just The Two Of Us

**Just The Two Of Us**

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Of all the stupid things I've done – Stiletto might be up there in the top 5.

I compromised my ethics for a desperate story.

I lied to myself, my friends and the paper that gave me a chance.

And I got Clark hurt.

But out of all of that – the stupidity and the near-death madness – something wonderful happened.

A message on red and blue paper – a phone booth on a lonely street, and that voice… on the other end of the line.

Of course, I know now that he picked me because he was… Clark.

But it didn't matter then.

Nothing mattered then except the two of us. Me and this… hero, this saviour… joined in the war against nightmares.

There's a long list of those who knew his secret before me.

Chloe, Pete, Lana, Lex, the Kents…

But I…

I was the first to talk to Superman.

For two years I drove him crazy. I took his trust as sign that I was on the right path. That my methods of unearthing the truth were justified because I had the world's hero on my side.

But it was all for him. Always for him.

He was the symbol we all needed.

That hope in deepest darkness.

I came to see just who I was in the grand scheme of things.

Someone important, maybe, but… oh so much less than him. I'd lay down my life for his in an instant. I always will. That's why I let go of the railing that day.

Plummeting through space I wasn't scared, because I believed that I'd die protecting him. Ensuring that he carried on.

I knew only peace in that moment.

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	10. Falling

**Falling**

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How quickly our love became everything.

So much more than scattered moments – stolen kisses in the bullpen.

I went into it so scared.

This was the guy who'd been chipping away at the walls of Fortress Lane for years. And he did it in the strangest, most effective way… just by being… Clark.

The shoulder to lean on when I couldn't stand.

The partner for movie-night marathons.

The lover who kissed away my tears.

The friend who told me to shut up.

We're a fit, that's what we are.

I sense his moods before they overtake him, and I snap him out of it. By force if I have to. That's necessary sometimes because he can be the King of Brooding.

He sees that side of me too. I never thought he would. I never thought anyone would. At heart, I'm still that little girl who sat on the foot of her mother's hospital bed, drowning in the fear of losing her. In my mind, I go there sometimes – when the world seems too much.

Clark brings me back.

With a touch, with a glance, with his mere presence.

He brings me back everytime.

It felt so natural to be with him. Opening my eyes in the morning, and seeing him there beside me, was like waking up to the dawn. Beautiful, and so expected. The way of things. So right.

I wanted that forever.

When I saw him go over the edge of the tower, it took everything not to dive after him.

I got there too late.

My instincts were right – Zod had lured him to the same place he'd lured me. But by the time I reached him – he'd been stabbed, and was toppling, arms outstretched – the martyr for us all.

Our last kiss blazed behind my eyes, diffusing the sight of his disappearing form. The strength of him as he held me. The desperate longing as he kissed me.

That was the moment the veil was whipped away.

I knew who he was – who he could be – and I was too late to save him.

I screamed.

Screamed and screamed.

Maybe his name, maybe just some meaningless, animal expression of loss, I don't know.

It got whipped away by the rain as I watched him fall.

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	11. Superman

**Superman**

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He heard me.

That's what he says anyway.

As the earth called to him, drawing him into her final embrace, my voice cut through the mist in his soul and he felt something inside him snap.

Flinging the dagger away, he drifted for a second.

Then he came to me.

Defying all the laws of nature, he flew – right into my arms.

We didn't stop until Metropolis was nothing more than a dust speck. I had his blood all over me. He had my tears all over him.

We didn't care.

It was so cold and I felt nothing but the fire inside him.

I held on, refusing to believe it was only a dream.

This was Clark, my Smallville… and we were flying. Safe in his arms we were above the world, our pasts and all our fears – right where we were always meant to be.

I make him fly me everywhere now.

He thinks I'm just being a pain – and maybe that a tiny piece of it – but I never get tired of that feeling. Chasing stars and fleeing winds, it's glorious.

He changed his name soon after.

He donned the shield, and the world was swept with awe.

The greatest hero we've ever known took to the skies – for me, for all of us… and the shadows lost their power.

That I got to be there, that I got to see it… it still leaves me breathless.

He asked me to choose the name.

It wasn't hard.

There was only one.

_Superman._

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	12. Where To End?

**Where To End?**

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"So that's my story… His story… Our story…"

Through it all he never said a word. He sat on the edge of the chair, crouched forward, body coiled with tension. He listened to every word, and offered none of his own.

The silence drew out like a blade, and she felt the beginnings of tears stir in her eyes. What if he didn't believe her? What if he did, and still refused to help?

How would she get back?

How would she survive this?

"This is… us…" she said, digging her wallet out of her jeans. She flipped it open, revealing a small booklet, each a protective case for a precious photograph.

"At the Smallville Fair last year. He bought me cotton candy," she was rambling, but she had to carry on, "Our friend Dave took that one. We're in the bullpen. Those are our desks. Adjoining, as you can see. That's me, and Clark and Martha in Washington…"

"I believe you."

It was the first time he'd spoken in what seemed like forever.

"You do?"

He nodded. "I'll find a way to get you back."

"Thank you."

"It's what he would have done, isn't it?" he asked, "Your Clark, I mean. He would have done anything in his power to get you home, if our situations were reversed. "

"Yes. He would."

I'm not like him, am I?"

She sensed how tense the moment was. How her next words could break him. But she couldn't lie.

"In some ways, you are..." she said, carefully, "You look like him, talk like him. I get the same... feeling from you. You carry a goodness that... almost radiates..."

"But...?"

"But you're not him. You're not Smallville."

He nodded, went quiet for a while. She'd hurt him, and she was sorry for it. When he looked at her, those eyes she'd stared into a million times still found a smile for her.

"I like the way you talk about him," he said, "You know what he can do – who he is – but he seems so… real to you."

"He is real. Just like you're real."

"No," this time he shook his head, "I'm a shadow. A fragment. We share a name – Clark Kent. We share the same history. But I never did what he did. I never became the man I was supposed to be. On this world… there is no Superman."

"There can be," I told him, gently. Reaching out, I took his hand, "It's up to you."

"I doubt it," he said, with so much sadness.

"Why not?"

"Because… You said it yourself. It's not Clark's story, or your story... it's about the both of you. And I... I never had a Lois Lane…"

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The End.


	13. Where To From Here?

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

A/N: I never thought I'd utter the words, due to popular demand, especially not on a story that's gotten less than ten reviews. But that's the case here.

I've received enough PM's on this story requesting a follow-up.

Apparently I committed a gross miscarriage of justice by leaving AU-Clark the way I did, uttering the words: "I never had a Lois Lane…"

So, because you guys asked for it, I'm writing the next chapter. A chapter which, incidentally, I never knew existed until I was made to write it.

It's called _Somebody Else's Story _and you can find it on my profile.

There's no greater compliment for a writer than when people feel strongly about the stories they tell.

So thank you all, and I hope it doesn't disappoint.


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